When the screaming finally stopped, Thera grabbed Gia’s hand to lead her inside.
“Come! I want you to meet Jake.”
Oh dear. Carla followed, wishing for the ground to open and swallow all three of them. When they arrived in the balcony, Jake was already standing by the couch and his hand was ready to give to Gia as he smiled gently down at her.
“Jake, this is Gia, my second best friend!” said Thera.
And then Jake took a look at Gia’s pale, shocked face before a resigned look passed his face. He threw a look at her.
Gia had her mouth wide open and her eyes was popping out so much that her eyeballs looked ready to roll out. Her face had turned blue, and then red, and she was trying to speak but no sound was coming out of her mouth.
Carla snatched her friend by the arm and pushed her up the steps to the kitchen as Thera looked confusedly at them.
“Gia, come in my room for a bit. I want to show you the blouse I told you about.”
But it was too late. Gia recovered her missing voice and she screamed at Jake.
“DEAR VIRGIN, CARLA! TOM SAWYER!”
Thera laughed. “What?”
Carla used all of her strength to drag her on the steps, hearing at the same time the troubled voice of Thera as they left.
“Tom Sawyer? That naughty little fellow who kept getting into trouble in Mark Twain’s book?”
“Yeah… except this naughty fellow gets us into trouble…” she mumbled furiously as she dragged ecstatic Gia up the upper floor to the bedroom upstairs.
Carla pulled at Gia across the upper floor’s corridor and she only followed because she was still fuzzy with the encounter. They passed a door – Jake’s temporary guestroom; and then Thera’s, until they got to the end of the corridor where Carla’s bedroom was. She pushed Gia inside and then carefully closed the door behind her.
“Tom Sawyer!” repeated Gia with awe.
“Gia, listen to me—”
“Tom Sawyer!” the other girl repeated much louder.
“Gia, concentrate, girl, and listen to me—”
“BUT IT’S TOM SAWYER!” And of course, she was screaming again.
“GIA, SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND LISTEN!”
Gia blinked at her. “Why are you screaming?”
Carla combed her fingers through her hair, like she always did when she was stressed out. She sighed, cursed, and then spoke as calmly as she could manage.
“Yes, it is Tom Sawyer. And Thera doesn’t know.”
Gia still looked confused for a moment until realization dawned on her, and then she was speechless for another moment.
“Tom Sawyer is Jake Winters, Thera’s boyfriend.”
“Oh-my-God! You gotta be joking! How is this even possible? He is Tom Sawyer! How is it even possible that he’s… every woman with a healthy libido and who has in Internet knows who he is! He couldn’t be Jake Winters!”
“You know very well that Thera is not like someone who would look up male escorts on the Internet. She doesn’t mingle in stuff like that! And we never told her that… well, that I… that you… oh dear!”
“That’s because she wasn’t here when it happened. If she was, she would have known.” Gia blinked again, several times, for the next few seconds. “So he really is Tom Sawyer? I mean, Jake Winters? Or – aarrgh! – he really is Thera’s boyfriend?”
Carla nodded painfully. She felt like she had committed a big crime, now that she was with somebody who knew about what happened in Mykonos.
The week she had lost her virginity to a virtual stranger…
* * *
CARLA did not really stay in Mykonos. She had stayed in Tourlos, a town half-an hour away from the bigger town of Mykonos. She was there to finish a thesis, and Gia and Adelpha, one of their other childhood friends, would have been her companions. Instead, Adelpha had gotten sick, while Gia had found another excuse not to come, too.
Now she wondered if Adelpha had really been sick. She remembered how they looked when she had come back, the excited looks on their shining faces as they threw questions at her as soon as her parents left them alone in her room.
She disappointed them by lying.
“No, nothing happened. I met him, and things didn’t go as planned, and he left.”
“You’re kidding! We did not pay him that much so he could leave you unsatisfied!” Adelpha exclaimed.
“Is he as handsome and as sexy as he was in Skype?” Gia had asked.
She, at least, gave them that. He was more than handsome. He was more than sexy. He was everything a woman could want in a lover.
He was perfect.
And he was now Thera’s boyfriend.
Chapter Eight
Carla had to focus on the now and not on what happened between her and Jake, or Tom, then. So she focused on Gia.
“Thera doesn’t know,” she repeated. “He hasn’t told her anything about his background. I can imagine why, though I don’t really know his reasons. But Thera is our friend so I mean to talk to him about it when I get a chance.”
Gia turned from a frenetic fan to an enraged friend in a second. “You mean he might just be playing with her?”
She shook her head. “He might not be. We can’t be sure. But, when you think about it, it isn’t easy to tell your girlfriend that you worked as a male escort before you broke out and becomes rich.”
“But Thera has to know!” Gia said. “He can’t treat our friend like that. He has to be honest. She is the nicest person on this living earth!”
And once again, Gia was ready to rush. Carla moaned with exasperation as she held her back again.
“Wait, you cyclone! As much as I hate saying this, it’s not our place to reveal it to her. At least not until I’ve confronted him and gave him the chance to explain himself.”
Gia thought for a minute. “That’s fair. After all, he may have a very good reason for not telling her, right? I mean, he’s not a bad person, right? You said he had been a gentleman and he treated you well in Mykonos.”
Oh yes, he’s been gentle, Carla thought.
Then she blinked and she shook her head, and the white-washed houses, beautiful in the sunlight from the balcony of the rented house where she stayed and where they made love all day and all night, vanished from her mind. But the feeling of his skin against her heated skin, of his manhood as it slid wetly and easily inside and out of her, and how the sensations magnified when she closed her eyes against the site outside the window and his sweaty, beautiful face, remained a bit longer.
Oh my God… how am I going to survive this?
When she looked at the suddenly quiet Gia, her friend’s eyes were focused on her. And she looked worried. She pulled at her until they were both sitting on the edge of her bed.
“Tom Sawyer in your home! Whoever saw this coming? What will Adelpha say?! And most of all, how do you feel?”
She gulped. “How do you think do I feel? He is Thera’s boyfriend!”
And on her friend’s mind, something clicked. “Oh no! You lied to us, didn’t you? Something happened between you and him!” She gasped. “He was your first man!”
“Shhh! Gia! Please!”
Gia’s eyes were bulging as her hands closed on her gaping mouth. Those eyes told it all.
She, Carla, and their friend, Thera, had shared the skills of one man!
“Not really,” she countered. “She said that they haven’t slept together yet. I got them separate rooms. She said they both didn’t want to rush things.” She winced. “This is unbelievable. I can believe that of Thera, but of Tom Sawyer?”
“Uh-uh.” Gia’s shaking head contradicted her. “I can believe that of you, who are the most disciplined person I know. But Thera… she will never play, but if she is in love she will succumb at the first instant. I can’t believe they never had sex!”
“So you mean…?”
“It must be the guy. Either he’s a twin, or he really has changed.”
“Remember, he’s
not a male escort anymore. Adelpha said he dropped out of the website shortly after I met him in Mykonos, so he is out of practice since then. He doesn’t need to make things happen anymore. And… he really must love Thera. I can imagine Thera saying something like wanting to wait until the perfect moment – you know her – and him giving her what she wished.”
Gia sighed deeply. “I can imagine Thera saying something like that, too. Though with a man like that, it’s a stupid thing to say.”
Suddenly, they were both giggling.
“What happened with you and him? Adelpha said that he must give you time because you had no clue about our plan for you, and that you will not give in at first.”
Her eyes widened. “Bitches, both of you!” she exclaimed, but she wasn’t angry.
Jake had been true to form. He did not leave right away after she said she had no intention of doing anything with him, and she was there because of her thesis, and that she only wanted… well… to find out how a woman feels when she was being romanced. It wasn’t like no one pursued her at home, but it was hard to act with someone she knew from childhood. Both Gia and Adelpha knew her hang ups.
A friend of a friend of Adelpha’s cousin was the source of a reputable website that offered escorting services by very select men. It was where Adelpha found Tom Sawyer, and he was the most sought-after escort there because he was, according to the forum where clients leave feedbacks anonymously, easily the most handsome and gallant.
Then Adelpha read an announcement that he was going to visit Greece on a Spring Break and the website was asking for takers. She took a chance and contacted him to give her friend an “experience” that would wake her up to the pleasures of men. She didn’t know how they had made him agree because there must have been a lot of offers. She couldn’t believe it was only because Adelpha had showed him a picture of her. Well, Adelpha was the only daughter of wealthy enterprising parents, so she could have paid him dearly for him to agree.
And he did that. He “romanced” her. They went to restaurants and they walked by the harbor, hand in hand. They swam on the beach. They each bought souvenirs.
She fell on the second day.
And the days of that week had been the most beautiful days of her life, ruining her for the men that came to her life after that.
But she didn’t mind. She hadn’t minded.
Until now.
“I can’t believe you lied to us and we both believed you,” Gia said, her face in total confusion. “No. Actually, we didn’t believe you – until he sent the payment back.”
Carla stared at her friend. “What? Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know. But shortly after you came back here, he asked Adelpha for an account number to send the money back. And she gave him an account, thinking he would only send a part of it because he was not able to make you do the deed, you know? But then he sent all of it back.”
Carla’s heart was thudding like crazy. “Why would he do that?” He did everything. They did everything.
Gia was staring back at her. “Well, it could be because he hated the week with you… which is unlikely. Or… he liked it so much that he wanted to give it meaning… so he sent the payment back.”
Carla was speechless.
Chapter Nine
“So what do we do now?” Gia asked with wide eyes.
Carla had to make an effort to focus again at the issue at hand. “Now, we go back downstairs like everything is fine and you don’t say a word to Thera until I say so. And you wipe off that look on your face or she will know that something is going on. Please?”
Gia grinned with comical guilt. “I can’t really blame you for your confusion right now, Carla,” she said. “He is a god, isn’t he? So much better up close! And he might have fallen for you, too, two years ago. I wonder why he hadn’t made an effort to find you?”
She was at that exact moment thinking about what Jake had said a while ago… that he went back to Mykonos and had looked her up. And she glared at Gia. “Focus! He is Thera’s boyfriend. We can’t forget that. Okay?”
“Right,” Carla said sheepishly.
Before Carla could say anything more, a knock on the door startled both of them. She stood up to open it, giving a warning look at Gia behind her back as she walked to the door.
To her utter surprise, it was Jake who was standing outside her door and not Thera. His eyes were very serious.
“Can I come in? I think we need to talk.”
She frowned, but she stepped back to let him in before Thera saw them and asked what was going on. “Thera?”
“I told her I’ll come up and put my swim-shorts so that we can go swimming,” he answered. He looked at Gia, who had also stood up and was all red and flushed again. “I gather by her reaction when she saw me that she knew about Mykonos, too. So there’s no secret between the three of us here?”
Gia tried to answer but all that came out of her mouth was unintelligible blabber.
“Gia, go down and keep Thera busy until we come down, okay?” Carla asked her. “Please calm down. She cannot know… yet.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Gia said. And then was out of the room before she could further embarrass herself, disappearing with a speed incredible for her size. And she had the presence of mind to close the door behind her.
And then, she was alone with Jake, inside her bedroom, with the huge bed just one or two step away.
Carla was looking down at the floor as she felt her body heating up uncontrollably. He was moving, getting closer. Alright, he had invaded her personal space now. His hand reached and lifted her chin, and she found herself staring at those magnetic blue eyes, so close. His lips so close. His whisper was so low that she strained to hear his words, while everything else faded.
“Do you know how many times I imagined this moment? I almost gave up. I thought I’ll never see you again, angel.”
She closed her eyes, the move involuntary. That was what he called her in Mykonos, in that exact tone. So tender, affectionate, loving. His breath caressed the soft skin of her lips and shivers tortured her body. She knew that he felt that. Any movement of a woman’s body that spoke of desire, he must all know. He started to move closer.
Loud laughter came from downstairs, so loud that it reached her room. She suddenly realized what they were doing and she pulled herself away, taking three steps back. He watched her with a clouded, confused gaze. They were both breathing heavily.
Damn… it’s still there. She was right in thinking he did desire her then. It wasn’t just an act. She could see the lust in his eyes and it about undid her. They were supposed to be talking about Thera. And she had to focus on that.
“Why haven’t you told Thera the truth?” she asked in a voice she had to fight to get steady.
He continued to stare at her with those twin blues, then he turned and walked to her bed and sat there on the edge, facing her.
Great… now I’ll have images of him on my bed as well… as if the others weren’t enough… she thought painfully.
He started to explain in a much steadier voice than hers.
“I met Thera in a party. It was a different party, not like the ones I used to attend when I was still an escort on that website. It was about six months ago, I think, and I was there as I am now, a software programmer and a businessman, and no one there knew about my past occupation. If anyone had known, they didn’t let me know anyway. Though I sometimes think it’s the reason why I get investments from wealthy husbands, though I don’t remember the wives.”
She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “I only want to know about Thera, please.”
He grinned before he got serious again. “I remember seeing her wearing a long white evening-gown, and I was impressed and mentioned this to someone. That someone introduced us and when I started talking to her, I found out that she is Greek. I remember telling her that I met this other Greek woman somewhere and I told her your name. It was a long shot. Of course there were many islands
and it’s stupid to assume that just because both of you are of the same nationality, you will know each other. And of course, she doesn’t know the name. But not because she doesn’t know you.” He shook his head as he smiled. “After everything you’ve told me about yourself, it was ironic of the situation that I hadn’t known about your real name.”
Carla sputtered in indignation.
Chapter Ten
“But I didn’t… I hadn’t—“
“It’s alright, angel. I understand. A woman will never divulge her true name to a male prostitute if she can help it, lest the name be mentioned in another group.”
She gaped back at him. She couldn’t know what to say.
He smiled. “I enjoyed my time with you. Very much. I… escort. I don’t… to tell the truth, I only agree to escorting. I don’t service sex, never did as a male escort. I had agreed to bridal showers mostly. But not to sex with any one of my clients… except you.”
“Why did you come, then?” she asked, unbelieving.
“Oh, woman, don’t you know how you look? One look at your picture and I was saying yes to your friend’s request. I had to clear it up with my boss. He had already chosen a more lucrative client for me and had to cancel. Anyway, not divulging your name was smart. You couldn’t have known that I wasn’t, truly, a prostitute. Even if male escorts are considered the same.”
“I cannot believe you’re telling me all this,” she said as she shook her head. “Thera’s just downstairs.”
“Oh, I am serious about her. After I got to know her, I realized what a unique human being she is, how decent and innocent she is, and most of all… she really doesn’t know about me. We started dating exclusively. I realized that I’m stupid if I let her go so I asked if she wanted to be with me on a more serious level. And she agreed.
“My mistake was that I didn’t tell her the truth from the beginning. It was quite refreshing that she doesn’t know about that part of me. Stop pouting your sweet lips, Angel. It is nice being unrecognized. It isn’t such a bad thing in Australia. People who do what I used to do are treated like stars and we’re invited to all kinds of parties to spice things up. I am not ashamed of anything I’ve done before, but it’s kind of hard when everybody thinks that that’s just what I am when they’re looking at me. I sold my apps and programs online. People see my website and not me, and they only got to see me after I have acquired my first ten million.
Mr. Blue Eyes: Wild Night Dreaming 1 Page 3